


you move towards her like a compass (the universe solely controls you)

by mondaynight



Series: We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd [1]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:55:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25545490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mondaynight/pseuds/mondaynight
Summary: Shai, the God of Fate, encounters two humans once again. He's followed these two before. He's witnessed every single one of their first meetings—over a thousand different simulations, a thousand different universes.He runs towards the musty train station, slipping through people, and arriving just on time.Or,Hope and Josie meet—in another lifetime.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Series: We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860709
Comments: 8
Kudos: 146





	you move towards her like a compass (the universe solely controls you)

**Author's Note:**

> perhaps one day we'll meet again as characters in a different story, maybe we'll share another lifetime then. -pavana

He comes for Hope and Josie at ten o’clock at night, almost a moment too late to watch the two of them when they finally meet. They’re both eighteen, which is a little behind schedule for this specific universe. Usually, they’ll come across each other earlier, before the age of sixteen.

  
  


He faintly remembers, in one universe, of magic and power and all things extraordinary, the girls had met when Hope was seven and Josie five. 

  
  


Thankfully, in this world Shai makes it right on time—invisible—running through walls, jogging past particles. He’s always here for this. For the first time they come across each other.

  
  


He doesn’t know how this world has developed yet. He wonders if Hope’s parents have died early, like in every other existence. He wonders if Josie still cares too deeply, still carries her heart too heavily. He can’t recognize it right away yet.

  
  


He doesn’t know the past, the _before_ , of any of their universes. He only comes the second they meet, he only comes to see everything _after_. It’s the only way he knows their pasts—when they finally talk to each other.

  
  


It’s his job. He’s been assigned to them. Sometimes, he decides he hates it. They’re both incredibly foolish. In some existences, they’re merely acquaintances. Their hearts both jump to each other, swimming to be close and side-by-side, he hears it in the way their hearts viciously beat—whenever they’re near each other.

  
  


He hates it when they choose not to talk to each other. He hates it when a silence creeps between them. Sometimes, lasting years.

  
  


At heart, Shai isn’t a patient man. His patience has truly only built through watching Hope and Josie. It’s quite the character builder.

  
  


Other times, he loves his job. It’s an incredible story, one he carries with him when he gets home every now and then. He even tells his kids, and they squeal with excitement every time there is something new to tell.

  
  


His home is a fixture of chalkboards, pencils, and papers. He is always planning their next paths, their next meetings. Shai is a God of destiny—it is his sole job. He lives for nothing else.

  
  


He laughs partially at the smile on Josie’s face. In the last world he was in, she was hugging her pillow in tears. Something bad had happened. That certain existence was becoming too much to handle for Shai. It was too sad to watch, too horrible to live through. He sometimes imagines himself as Josie or Hope.

  
  


He doesn’t get past a minute with the thought of it. He doesn’t know how they live, either.

  
  


He needs this. Very badly.

  
  


The brown-haired girl is currently looking straight ahead, her eyes fixated on the wall adjacent to the train station. She is sitting on a bench. He sits next to her, touching her hair whenever she turns away.

  
  


The bench is cold and metallic. He doesn’t know how she’s not shivering. He wants to place a jacket on her, place _something_ on her, but he can’t. He hates how he can never truly get involved. He makes the lay-out of the world, but he can never control it after.

  
  


It’s one of his pet-peeves. No do-overs.

  
  


Although he allows them to meet, makes the world cave for the sole reason that they should come together, he’s never told anything of who they are, what they’ve done.

  
  


All Shai chooses is the location, the time, their birth. He doesn’t truly have so much power. Their personalities always remain the same.

  
  


He looks around. Where is his other starlet? Maybe she might offer a jacket?

  
  


It’s happened before, in another life.

  
  


The train has yet to arrive.

  
  


Hope has yet to arrive.

  
  


He glances at Josie, trying to take her appearance in. Trying to learn who she is in this lifetime. She’s wearing black slacks and a white buttoned-blouse, her sleeves tucked up to her arms. It’s more so formal, more so business. Shai wonders if she has a job, wonders if she has just come back from working.

  
  


A job interview, perhaps?

  
  


No. Not this late.

  
  


She’s wearing heels, and looks completely innocent. He fears for her.

  
  


_No, no_ , Shai wants to yell. _You shouldn’t be out here alone._

  
  


Her hair is frighteningly straight, something that isn’t so usual. Something, Shai has learned, that Josie only does when she needs to dress up. 

  
  


Shai walks over to the digital TV on one of the walls. The next train doesn’t come for twenty minutes. What is Josie doing here so early?

  
  


He runs over to her, standing in front of her. He wants to protect her from the old men who stare at her, he wants to protect her from the guys who look like they hold knives underneath their jackets.

  
  


He hopes Hope comes soon.

  
  


He watches as Josie takes out a book from her black briefcase. His face scrunches up.

  
  


That’s new.

  
  


She never was really much of a reader in the other worlds. He wonders what has changed now. He glances over her shoulder, trying to sneak a glimpse of the title. It’s a fantasy novel, he sees.

  
  


Shai tries to read with her, but the young lady goes much too fast for his pathetic speed. When did she become such a reader?

  
  


A minute later, something grabs his attention. He had first thought he was late, but he’s glad to see the time that was spared. The time that he took and learned from. Sometimes he learns things of Hope first. Sometimes Josie first. It switches constantly.

  
  


A woman walks over, who he recognizes instantly as Hope. He smiles at her, his face bleeding up in suspense. He wonders how this universe will turnout.

  
  


She stands a few feet away from the station, standing slightly in front of the bench. Shai is glad to see that it catches someone else’s attention—Josie’s.

  
  


Perfect, he thinks.

  
  


She drops her book and it falls in her lap, almost falling off of her knees and onto the floor. She catches it just in time. Shai smirks, all-knowing. He stands at one of the podiums that connect the ground to the ceiling, between them and a few feet away. He wants the best view.

  
  


Hope is also dressed up formally and this is the first time Shai has ever seen her so tall. The heels definitely work.

  
  


It causes Shai to pause momentarily. Have they already met? Did he...miss it?

  
  


They’re dressed so alike. The only reason would be that they both came from an office job or something. But so...young? He sighs. Everyone does shit at an early age now. It shouldn’t surprise him.

  
  


They stand two feet away from each other, tied by an invisible string. He waits.

  
  


The train station is near empty, Hope and Josie the only ones at the metro.

  
  


Shai likes the start of this story. He does, very much. He already knows what he's going to tell his kids. They're probably up waiting for him now. His eyes dart back and forth between the two, Josie looking up at the girl curiously.

  
  


The brown-eyed girl sits as still as ever in her seat, sliding all the way to the right side of the bench. Shai hesitates to think it’s to make room for Hope. Although Josie is kind, she is still very distrustful of people. The times where she’s been _too_ trusting have made her so.

  
  


The noise of Josie’s movement, the rustling of Josie’s papers and book, cause Hope to look behind her. Their eyes meet.

  
  


It’s slow. Very slow. He thinks one of them will eventually say something, but their eyes continue to stay locked. He wishes it to be captivation, a magnetic pull to each other. No.

  
  


He knows it. He circles around them, trying to understand the most from the single moment. He wonders if their instant attraction to each other causes their other senses to stop working.

  
  


Their mouths remain sewn shut, their eyes speaking magnitudes. He can’t tell if this is good or bad. He pauses, knowing that once they didn’t say anything before. Their eyes had met, and that was all. They walked away from each other. He hopes this isn’t the same.

  
  


Through the speakers of the station, a warning plays.

  
  


“Next train will stop in five minutes. I repeat, the next train will stop in five minutes.”

  
  


The robotic tone of the voice pulls Josie’s eyes away and she stands up, collecting her things.

  
  


_No. No. No. No._

  
  


His breath hitches, something like panic building thick in his throat. Josie can’t go away. This can’t be all. He wants to do something. Surely, he should have more power. Shai _builds_ the roads, he leads fate and carries the consequences.

  
  


This can’t be it.

  
  


He swears he hears a heavy breath leave Hope’s tongue. She exhales, her eyes still pulled towards Josie. The brown-haired girl is still completely unaware, fixing her papers back into her briefcase.

  
  


Time slows down, Shai melting it into milliseconds. They deserve more time. They just need more time.

  
  


Hope clears her throat, but it isn’t loud enough to draw Josie’s attention. For a second, Shai thinks it wasn’t meant to get Josie’s attention at all. He thinks her throat was just stuck, or her mouth had gone dry.

  
  


Her throat bobs up again and Shai can tell the moment she swallows. She swallows about every two seconds. He wonders if she’s sick. Or he wonders if this is the same pain she feels every time she looks at Josie. If it’s the same _love_. It’s happened in every other existence.

  
  


Hope’s throat stings every other second of every other universe. She can never seem to fix her problem. The image of Josie—the fatal attraction of Josie—just brings it on.

  
She steps closer to the brown-haired girl, her heel hitting the floor silently but loudly all the same. She waits for Josie to turn back around, not wanting to scare her.

  
  


Josie swings her briefcase over her shoulder and their two worlds collide for a moment. Shai hopes they’ll collide forever. Hope hesitates briefly, tilting her head to thoroughly eye the girl.

  
  


The confusion on Josie’s face is evident. Her eyebrows furrow together and she looks at Hope expectantly. They always start like this—as strangers. But Shai thinks that the way they look at each other isn’t so. It never is so.

  
  


The way they look at each other is the look that passes through soulmates. It’s the reason he was first assigned to them. This look between Hope and Josie—a look of fair breath and wanting nothing more but to _never_ look away—is all he knows. 

  
  


It’s all he sees as he glances between them. Yes, they meet for the first time. But this isn't the first time at all. It’s everything, happening all over again.

  
  


Shai can’t even begin to define everything. He has memorized every moment the two of them have shared, he has memorized every one of their beginnings...every one of their endings.

  
  


Hope finally says something, her voice soft and quiet like never before.

  
  


“Do I know you?” 

  
  


Their eyes snap back on to each other, Hope’s words lighting the fire. Josie burns in front of Shai’s eyes.

  
  


The God of Fate smiles.

  
  


_Yes._

  
  


_You two know each other very, very well._


End file.
